Abstract
Boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials have been increasingly explored for potential applications in chemistry and biology fields (e.g., biomedical, pharmaceutical, and energy industries) due to their unique physico-chemical properties. However, their safe utilization requires a profound knowledge on their potential toxicological and environmental impact. To date, BN nanoparticles have been considered to have a high biocompatibility degree, but in some cases, contradictory results on their potential toxicity have been reported. Therefore, in the present study, we assessed two commercial 2D BN samples, namely BN-nanopowder (BN-PW) and BN-nanoplatelet (BN-PL), with the objective to identify whether distinct physico-chemical features may have an influence on the biological responses of exposed cellular models. Morphological, structural, and composition analyses showed that the most remarkable difference between both commercial samples was the diameter of their disk-like shape, which was of 200–300 nm for BN-PL and 100–150 nm for BN-PW. Their potential toxicity was investigated using adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549 cells) and the unicellular fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as human and environmental eukaryotic models respectively, employing in vitro assays. In both cases, cellular viability assays and reactive oxygen species (ROS) determinations where performed. The impact of the selected nanomaterials in the viability of both unicellular models was very low, with only a slight reduction of S. cerevisiae colony forming units being observed after a long exposure period (24 h) to high concentrations (800 mg/L) of both nanomaterials. Similarly, BN-PW and BN-PL showed a low capacity to induce the formation of reactive oxygen species in the studied conditions. Even at the highest concentration and exposure times, no major cytotoxicity indicators were observed in human cells and yeast. The results obtained in the present study provide novel insights into the safety of 2D BN nanomaterials, indicating no significant differences in the toxicological potential of similar commercial products with a distinct lateral size, which showed to be safe products in the concentrations and exposure conditions tested.
Highlights
This article is an open access articleIn recent years, the progress of nanotechnology has fueled the design and manufacturing of novel engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)
Many methodologies have been used by different authors to characterize the physico-chemical properties of nanomaterials, such as composition (e.g., ICP-MS, XPS, etc.), surface chemistry and atomic structure (XPS, Raman, etc.), charge (z-potential), size (SEM, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering, etc.), and morphology (AFM, SEM, TEM, etc.), aiming to understand their potential hazard when interacting with biological systems
To obtain insights into the products form and size, they were subjected to atomic force microscopy (AFM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses
Summary
This article is an open access articleIn recent years, the progress of nanotechnology has fueled the design and manufacturing of novel engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Different types of nanomaterials have been investigated for a wide range of potential applications [1,2,3,4]. The material is generally considered safe, being extensively used as well in the cosmetics industry, not in its nanomaterial form [10,11]. BN-based nanomaterials have raised the attention of the scientific community for their possible use in pharmaceutical and medical applications, such as cosmetics, drug delivery, scaffold materials for tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine, etc. As a consequence of the growth in the variety of applications of these nanomaterials, the increase of environmental and human exposure will be higher, and may occur through multiple different pathways, which makes it necessary to study their potential toxicological effects
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